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Ok, my week of stern but just rule is over, and I shall have to vacate the throne.

In naming my successor, I shall be unorthodox. The “Best Character Writer of the Week” award has been mostly limited to earnest AARs, but I want to help create an awareness that characterization is not necessarily all about advanced psychology and angst, but that it can also be about creating interesting and memorable characters and portraying them in a consistent way. There are a number of comedy writers who have created very unique characters and gave them a hilarious but still well-defined profile of their own, and so I would like to nominate a comical writer for the many great – comical - characterizations he has done.

The prolific work of my successor spans the entire gamut of Paradox titles. His countless characters are not only funny, but moreover also three-dimensional and equipped with a life of their own. He has given us characters as memorable and unique as Johnny Tsunami, Archidamus Eurpontid, and St. Aslak Who Drove All The Frogs From Ireland. He is the self-proclaimed King of phargle-ripoffing, and I have heard it said that the Emperors of Crovania have placed a bounty of half a penny on his head and want to reward him for his services of publicizing the shame of their dynasty by gifting him with half of their Empire – the rebellious half, that is. So, in (almost) the words of the man himself:

Packer! As an old Crovanophile, I'll have to concur what a great choice this is! Had I the time, I would read the tales of Gudrod Crovan again. Ah, memories...

And I think I forgot to congratulate you last week, Guiscard. I started reading your AAR, but then real life and schoolwork attacked me with a vengeance. I liked what I had time to see though, and I promise to have a look at it when one day I don't have my back crumbled and torn by schoolbooks.

Stand up, all victims of oppression,
For the tyrants fear your might!
Don't cling so hard to your possessions,
For you have nothing if you have no rights!
Let racist ignorance be ended,
For respect makes the empires fall!
Freedom is merely privilege extended,
Unless enjoyed by one and all.

I can honestly say, much like The_Guiscard said before, I never expected to win this award. Ever. And I mean ever.

When I realized The_Guiscard (who is the sort of author that should wind this award often) had linked my inkwell page, I raced over to update it (Crovan Clan 2 wasn't on there) and stopped to read The Adventures of King Kamehameha. I'd forgotten what a joy that story was to write (even if the game itself was awful). I am not a great player of Paradox games (in fact, even on easy, they can be a struggle and Normal is as tough as I can handle), so I can't write stories of great conquest, because it just doesn't happen in my games. And that's okay. There are plenty of great players producing great stories. Despite periodic highs, these are mostly AARs of abjact failure. For Every Half-Dan running about and conquering huge chunks of land, there is a Skule hot on his heels and ready to lose it all.

Maybe that is why these characters work for people. Their lives are not great. They do not accomplish fantastic things, though they might have great dreams. They are simply everymen. Granted, often violent, murderous, autocratic, or insanse, everymen. So, maybe they are not "everymen" at all. But they are, at some level and in some way, all failures and the sting of failure is something everyone can identify with.

After several attempts to look at characters and motivations and deleting more than a few pompus re-writes, I shall instead simply say "thank you" to all my readers. Often comments give me insights into characters I hadn't noticed before and the continued comments make me work harder to make each person distinct and true to themselves. I feel like I have gotten better at this over time and it is because of you all. You make me want to populate these stories with new and varied individuals and families, whether it is the violent, sociopathological and monomaniacal Crovans, the well intentioned and naive Kamehamehas or the entire cast of madmen in Kamil Krofta, I am doing it because I want to make you all as happy reading my stories as I am writing them and reading yours.

Also, as you can see, this is why I stick to graphics-heavy formats. I get wordy, long-winded and boring, when given half a chance.